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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27351589">Under the Pressure</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelAgender/pseuds/PastelAgender'>PastelAgender</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Transformers_Prime_AU [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Autobot Starscream, Canon-Typical Violence, Chaos, Continuity What Continuity, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spy Starscream, Tags Are Hard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:53:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,158</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27351589</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelAgender/pseuds/PastelAgender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if one thing could alter your entire future forever? What if the one thing you forgot became you're greatest strength? What if everything as you knew it was not what it seemed?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barricade/Original Cybertronian Character(s), Bluestreak/Sideswipe/Sunstreaker (Transformers), Breakdown/Knockout, Hound/Mirage (Transformers), Jazz/Prowl, Optimus Prime/Starscream, Skywarp/Starscream/Thundercracker (Transformers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Transformers_Prime_AU [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. This is only getting started</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Enjoy this chaos idk where this is going but you guys are going down this with me lol</p><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In the middle of space, a small spaceship carrying a few mechs drifted aimlessly. They had fled from their home planet which had since been ravaged by war and misuse. Things were quiet aboard the ship. Seven mechs were seated around the table having their daily energon before they had to start the duties. All around the table there was a black and white Polyhexian with a blue visor and a blue stripe running up his chasis. Sitting on his lap was a black and white Praxian who looked like he was still half asleep. Next to them was a dark gray and red Praxian who was chatting about nothing and everything. Next to him were two identical Kaon mechs one bright red and the other golden. They were both looking at the younger Praxian seemingly listening to what he was saying. Across from the twins was a blue and white noble mech who was talking softly with the green mech. "Since I'm done first I'm going to go monitor our prisoners." Bluestreak said standing up and walking to one of the rooms off the side of the dining area. The ship itself was only built to house 4 mechs. One of the rooms had been locked up to keep the mechs they were keeping captive from wandering the ship. Or that would be the official story once they met up with another group.</p><p>"Sit back down, Sunstreaker. You know he'll be fine. TC and 'Warp would never harm him." Prowl said looking at the gold frontliner. Sunstreaker grumbled before sitting back down. Prowl got up from his spot on Jazz's lap giving him a kiss on his cheek. "I'm going to check comms to see if they picked anything up yet. You'd think we'd find somebot by now."</p><p>"We'll get one soon, Prowler. Most groups 'ave one ops mech with 'em. Prime's got two on his team alone. We'd pick up their signal at some point." Jazz said smiling at his conjunx. Prowl gave him one more kiss before walking towards the bridge. </p><p>"Do you two really have to be sappy this early in the cycle?" Sideswipe complained teasingly. Jazz tossed his empty cube at him as Sideswipe quickly got up to try and dodge it. He proceeded to run into the bridge away from the saboteur. Jazz stood up and stretched before walking into the bridge. He sat down in front of the navigation controls. He pulled up the data on the next planet they were going to end up passing. A small little inhabited one known as Earth. Jazz was still looking over the information when Prowl suddenly stood up.</p><p>"We got a signal. Two signals actually both of them coming from the next planet. Give me one klik and I'll have who we are pinging." Prowl said rapidly typing on the consol infront of him. Jazz signal Sideswipe to go tell the others as he got up and moved over to the comms console. "Almost there... Got them!" Prowl pulled up the signals of the two bots they were receiving. Jazz looked over his shoulder at the patterns. </p><p>"Bumblebee and Arcee. Which means Team Prime must be on this planet. Which means OP is here." Jazz said as everyone else came running into the bridge. Jazz turned and looked at all of the before saying, "Time ta set phase 1 inta action." Everything sprang into action in that moment. Mirage quick took over the navigation control while Hound went and grabbed a box of syringes. Blustreak ran back to the room with Thundercracker and Skywarp. Jazz followed closely behind him.</p><p>"Whats happening?" Skywarp said standing up from the berth him and Thundercracker were laying on.</p><p>"Phase one has begun. We caught two ops signals. You two are already informed of your roles in this phase?"</p><p>"Find Starscream and set him back to normal. Our cover story is that we were captured by enemy troops and have escaped destroying the engine of the ship." Thundercracker said. "Jazz if this doesn't work-"</p><p>"Prowlers already told me the odds TC. 13% failure rate. We can work with that this just need ta go off perfectly." Jazz said leading them to where the off ramp of the ship was. "Hound will tell us when we breached the atmosphere. We're gonna let ya off right there and then Sideswipe is gonna blow the engine and everyone will be in forced stasis for the duration of the crash."</p><p>"Let's hope this works. Hand me Star's old frame. I need to make sure it doesn't get damaged." Bluestreak passed the greyed out seeker frame to Thundercracker carefully. After a bit Hound called out from the front of the ship that they have breached the atmosphere of the planet. Jazz and Bluestreak both grabbed onto something as Jazz opened the on ramp. Thundercracker and Skywarp immediately flew out and Jazz closed the door behind them. Hound handed both Bluestreak and Jazz syringes as the both headed to the bridge to strap in. Jazz gave a little prayer to Primus as he jabbed the syringe into his thigh. A boom went off in the engine room as everyone fell into stasis lock and the ship started plummeting to the surface.</p><p>------</p><p>Thundercracker and Skywarp flew towards The Nemesis. They kept towards the upper atmosphere to keep any of the Earth natives from spotting them. When they got closer to The Nemesis skywarp transformed into root mode and landed on top of Thundercracker. He warped both of them inside the ship. Thundercracker transformed back into root mode making sure Starscream's frame was in his arms. They walked deeper into the ship, the Vehicons getting out of the way of both the seekers. Thundercracker handed Starscream's frame off to Skywarp as he continued his way towards the bridge to notify Megatron of the arrival. He didn't think he needed to knowing Soundwave most likely informed their leader. Skywarp went a different way heading towards the medbay. Thundercracker looked at the walls of The Nemesis. He was kind of beating himself up for leaving Starscream alone for so long, but he did know now that he was back; he wasn't going to leave his trine leader's side. He was supposed to protect the trine. He was supposed to keep Starscream and Skywarp safe. Thundercracker let out a vent before steeling himself and making sure his mental barriers were up. He did not want Soundwave in his head. He walked into the bridge and up to Megatron before kneeling before the leader of the Decepticons. "Master, Skywarp and I have returned." He said keeping his tone calm and even.</p><p>"So it would appear. Now I expect a report and an explanation as to what took you two so long to return to us. But for now we have other matters to attend. What happened with the frame?" Megatron asked, staring at the blue seeker.</p><p>"Skywarp should have delivered it to the medbay. We are ready to begin when you are ready master." Thundercracker said standing up. "And as for where we have been. I'm afraid until recently we were held captive by the Autobots S.I.C and T.I.C. We left them drifting through space with a broken engine that should have exploded after we left."</p><p>"So they are no more? Good less of a problem for us. Now then Starscream should be in the medbay already. He had an... unfortunate accident as of late and needed to be put in stasis for now to heal up. Not that it really matters. This test to see if he would be more obedient has been a failure." Megatron stood up from his throne and proceeded to walk out of the bridge towards the medbay. Thundercracker and Soundwave followed a long behind him, the seeker keeping his distance from the ever knowing telepath. "Soundwave comm Knockout and let him know we are heading towards the medbay." </p><p>"Yes, Master." Starscream's voice played from Soundwave's speakers. Thundercracker glanced over at the very silent T.I.C and decided that he better avoid him when he could. For now Thundercracker was going to focus on getting his trine leader back.</p><p>------</p><p>Everything at the Autobot base was silent up until the alarms went off. Optimus and Ratchet both ran out of their quarters to the main room to see what was happening on the monitors. Behind them was everyone else. Ratchet immediately started to try to figure out what set off the alarms as Optimus tried to calm everyone down. "What's going on?" Arcee asked, still shaken by being onlined by a loud alarm. </p><p>"It looks to be a damaged cybertronian ship is crashing through the atmosphere. I'm still trying to pinpoint where it'll land and if these are Autobots. We have to be prepared just in case." Ratchet says not taking his optics off the monitors. After a few kliks of silence Ratchet looks at their small team before saying, "the ship is Autobot alright and I believe I have the coordinates as to where it'll crash. I'll get the medbay ready."</p><p>"You go do that, old friend. Bumblebee, Arcee you both are with me. Bulkhead, you get read to ground bridge us back after we check for survivors. Hopefully they do survive the crash. It'll help even out our numbers and it'll be nice to see some familiar faces." Optimus said. "Now open the ground bridge." Once the ground bridge opened Optimus, Bumblebee, and Arcee all transformed and drove through it. They continued driving until they reached the crash site. Optimus transformed back into root mode and approached the ship carefully making sure to avoid the fire. He ducked in through the hole the engine made during the explosion. Arcee followed after him, Bumblebee staying outside to keep watch. They kept their optics out for any signs of life while walking towards the bridge. Arcee looked into each of the rooms as they passed through the dining room. When they enter the bridge, Optimus froze and Arcee let out a gasp. Optimus quickly commed Ratchet, "Make sure your medbay is ready. We found Team Prowl."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Naptime's over</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ratchet looking around his already small medbay at the mechs laying there unconscious. Optimus came in carrying Prowl in his arms. "This should be everyone. We have double checked every spot in that ship and there's no one else." Optimus said, laying Prowl carefully down next to Jazz. He knew better than to leave the tactician and saboteur apart from each other.</p><p>"Okay now to get them back online. I could probably start up Prowl's and Hound's online sequences. Prowl's is going to take a while to boot up because of his tact net so getting Hound also up gives us an opportunity to find out what exactly happened." Ratchet said walking over to Prowl. "Luckily it looks like they suffer minimal damage from the crash. Bumblebee, get Hound online while I start Prowl's start up sequence." Ratchet proceeded to plug his cord into Prowl's medical port. After being sure that Prowl was out of stasis lock and on his  way to coming online, Ratchet unplugged the cord and went over to where Hound was just starting to sit up. Hound looked around the room, his vision blurry. He clutched his helm as a shot of pain went through.</p><p>"I feel like I got hit by Astrotrain." Hound said waiting for the pain in his helm to fade.</p><p>"Well that's what happens when you are in a ship crashing into the planet's surface. I would get you something to help with the pain but unless there is something on your ship we are currently out. All we can do is wait for the pain to pass. Luckily Prowl should be online by then and we can start the process of getting everyone else online." Ratchet said looking Hound over.  Other than some scorch marks and a few dents, Hound was otherwise fine. Hound leaned back, throwing an arm over his optics.</p><p>"Never in my life have I been more happier hearing your voice. Who all else is here?"</p><p>"Other than me and Optimus, we have Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee. We ran into Wheeljack a while back so he is also still kicking. I should be asking, What happened? It's not everyday we get a ship just crashing into the planet."</p><p>"We had prisoners aboard that we were keeping our optics on. They were locked in the extra room we had on the ship. Bluestreak was supposed to watch them for this cycle but they overpowered him and managed to damage the engine before escaping. The engine must have exploded or something because the next thing I remember is we all fell into stasis lock." Hound felt his helmache slowly start to fade away. He sat back up and looked at Mirage who was still in stasis lock next to him. He reached out and took Mirage's servo in his. "We can try onlining Mirage. His battle protocols might not activate with me awake. I can keep him calm over the bond."</p><p>"Okay but if he attacks it is your fault." Ratchet said moving over to where Mirage was laying down. He plugged into Mirage's medical port and started the boot up process. Instantly, Mirage sat up quickly the sound of battle protocols engaging. Hound pushed comfort and safety down the bond in hopes to get Mirage to calm down. Slowly Mirage disengaged his battle protocols and leaned back against Hound. Ratchet looked over to the otherside of the medbay to the sound of groaning. He saw Prowl looking blankly at the ceiling. "Welcome back to reality, Prowl. Everything is probably going to hurt for a little while but we currently don't have any pain blockers."</p><p>"Did everyone make it out okay?" Prowl asked, trying to push through the helmache like it wasn't there. He sat up carefully and looked around the small room. He looked down at Jazz who was still in stasis lock. "Who all have you onlined already?"</p><p>"Mostly just Hound and Mirage. We didn't want to risk onlining Jazz or the twins just yet. Bluestreak is a special case, we will have to be careful with getting him online especially with the condition of  his spark." Ratchet said moving over to Prowl's side. "With you online I can get Jazz back online with minimal damage to our surroundings."</p><p>"Blue has always been a special case. It's not every cycle a spark tries to split apart to become a twin only for one part to completely absorb the other one." Prowl said, looking over to where his creation was laying still in stasis lock like his Sire. "Getting Jazz back online would be a good idea. The faster we can get him up and about the faster we can plan our next move."</p><p>Ratchet reached over Prowl to plug his cord into Jazz, keeping the tactician between him and the saboteur. He shot Prowl a glare when he heard the soft laughter before initiating Jazz's onlining sequence. He quickly unplugged as the Polyhexian shot up energon dagger immediately in his servos. Prowl quickly grabbed Jazz's arm and pulled him back down. Jazz looked at the Praxian confused but quickly turned off his battle protocols as his mate snuggled into his side. Jazz looked around before locking optics with Ratchet. "Hatchet! Aren't ya a sight for sore optics? 'ow ya been?"</p><p>"Jazz and here I thought we decided to never call me that again." Ratchet said glaring at Jazz. "I've been better but at least we have more on our side now. Megatron and Starscream have been causing us a lot more trouble lately." Ratchet got up and walked over to where Bluestreak was laying on the only available berth. He started hooking up a makeshift sparkrate sensor as he plugged into Bluestreak's medical port. Keeping an optic on the sensor he started up Bluestreak's onlining sequence. Jazz and Prowl walked over to the otherside of the berth, being careful not to be in Ratchet's way. Prowl clutched onto Jazz's arm as he waited for Bluestreak to come online. Bluestreak onlined his optics and let out a pained groan. Ratchet let out a vent of relief as he unplugged from Bluestreak. Jazz reached forward with his free servo and grabbed a hold of Blue's. Ratchet smiled softly at them then stepped away to let them have a moment. He looked over to see that Bumblebee had started the process to online Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The twins both sat up leaning against each other for comfort. Ratchet walked over and kneeled down in front of them. "How are you two feeling?"</p><p>"Like we got into a fight with a combiner. Ri, do you have anything for the pain?" Sideswipe said looking at Ratchet. Ratchet's expression softened before he pulled his adopted creations into a hug.</p><p>"Sadly I don't. Arcee is still going through the ship you all crashed in so hopefully there's something there. But now that you two are here I'm not allowing you out of my sight. I've had enough sparkache as it is worrying about you two." Ratchet said as the twins leaned into his embrace. He remembers when he first found the two of them. The pits of Kaon were not where mechlings should have been. "Bluestreak is online if you want to go sit with him."</p><p>With that the twins were out of his arms and walking quickly over to the berth Bluestreak was laying on. Ratchet noticed that Jazz and Prowl had left the room. Most likely to go talk to Optimus about what needs to happen next. Ratchet let out a vent. The game had changed greatly and he could only take this as a sign that the war is almost over.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thundercracker let out a vent of relief as they walked inside the medbay. He looked around the room before focusing on Starscream, who was currently in stasis lock. He noticed that there were wield marks on Starscream's arm. He sent concern down his bond to Skywarp but remained perfectly calm in his outward appearance. Skywarp was leaning against the berth with Star's old frame looking bored despite also being worried for his trine leader. Megatron looked between the two frames as if contemplating something. "I will like to be notified when the procedure is done. Soundwave, keep an eye on everything while I'm busy." Megatron said before leaving the medbay. The medic, Knockout, looked like he relaxed a bit more once the tyrant was out of the room. Thundercracker glanced at Soundwave suspiciously before moving over to Skywarp's side.</p><p>"Okay better get this started then. But before that I don't think we have been acquainted." Knockout said turning to the two seekers. "I am Knockout, the new CMO, and this," He pointed to Breakdown behind him, "is Breakdown, my assistant."</p><p>Right as Knockout finished saying that Starscream's voice could be heard saying, "You may refer to him as just an assistant but everyone but Megatron knows you're both bonded." Knockout shot a glare towards Soundwave who was radiating amusement. Thundercracker looked around very confused as to the dynamic here. He was still weary of the silent TIC but to actually see him joke around almost sent Thundercracker into a crash.</p><p>"My name is Thundercracker, Bodyguard and Trinemate of the Winglord of Vos and The second in command of the decepticon air division." Thundercracker said after getting over his confusion. "This here is Skywarp, Advisor and Trinemate of the Winglord of Vos and the third in command of the decepticon air division. He is also my conjunx." Skywarp glanced up at the sound of his name looking around at everyone. He then went back to looking at Starscream's frame still in stasis lock.</p><p>"Not much of a talker, is he?" Knockout said, starting to connect wires to the greyed out frame. Thundercracker ignored the question, choosing to look around the medbay. Out of the corner of his optic he saw something move on Soundwave's shoulder. A tiny creature sat up as Thundercracker looked over very confused by the entire situation. Breakdown also looked over at Soundwave before saying, "Oh, is Decoy awake? Normally they'd be asleep until a lot later in the cycle."</p><p>Soundwave nodded as Breakdown looked over at Thundercracker. "Decoy is human Soundwave picked up and refuses to leave. Megatron tried getting him to get rid of them but Soundwave refused and is now taking care of them." Breakdown walked over to where Knockout was starting the spark transfer to see if he needed any help. Thundercracker just shrugged it off deciding that he wouldn't question Soundwave's need to adopt anything that seemed helpless. Skywarp latched onto his arm once the procedure started. Thundercracker glanced down at the smaller seeker but mostly just kept his optics on Knockout transfering Starscream's spark. This had to go smoothly. Jazz and Prowl were waiting to hear from them that Star was back in the game. Thundercracker didn't fully know what the three had planned but he wasn't going to question it. As long as he got his leader back. As Starscream's spark went into the frame his colors started spreading going from red at his chest to silver at his arms and legs then to blue at his servos and pedes. Thundercracker made a vent of relief at the sight. Once Starscream's chestplates closed he made a sudden gasp as he sucked in a vent. Thundercracker immediately rushed to his side and gently picked up one of Star's servos. "Give me a moment to process this new data." Starscream said as Thundercracker made to speak.</p><p>"There wouldn't be new data if you weren't forced into a different body with fake memories." Skywarp grumbled climbing onto the berth next to Starscream and immediately latching on. Starscream let out a grumble as he was forcibly cuddled by the other seeker. Thundercracker smiled at the scene. He decided no matter what happens next he wouldn't leave his leader's side again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Something's Up With Jazz</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303 </p><p>Yes the title is a homage to somethings up with Jack don't @ me</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Everyone watched as Jazz paced around the perimeter of the base. It had been a few days since Team Prowl came online after their ship crashed into the planet. Jazz had slowly been getting twitchy and paranoid since then. Bumblebee and Arcee glanced at each other both concerned for their normally cheerful boss. He was acting like something was about to attack constantly and rarely let himself relax since onlining. Optimus already tried getting him to tell him what was wrong but Jazz just shrugged him off and told him not to worry about it. Jazz could feel something gnawing at the edge of this processor. Like some dark presence had taken up space in the far reaches of his helm. But he wasn't about to let the others know what it was, especially since Jazz, himself, couldn't tell what it was. All he knew was that whatever it was he was going to keep his family safe from it. He was jolted out of his thoughts when Prowl walked over to stop his pacing. Jazz looked at his bondmate before giving him a small smile. "Hey Prowler, ya settlin’ alright?" He said taking one of Prowl's servos in his.</p><p>"I should be the one asking you that. I wish you would tell me what has been bothering you." Prowl said, taking a step closer to his mate. He lifted his free servo and pressed it against the side of Jazz's helm. Jazz leaned forward pressing his forehelm against Prowl's.</p><p>"Ya know I'd tell ya first the second I know what's gettin’ meh. I love ya too much ta block ya out like that, sweetspark." Jazz let the fear and confusion he was feeling flow over the bond. Prowl looked at him in concern, sending back love and comfort. Jazz pressed a kiss to Prowl's chevron before saying, "Let's go ta recharge." With that both Jazz and Prowl left the main room as the others watched them leave. Bluestreak vented quietly feeling concerned about his creators before turning back to his conversation with Miko and Jack. </p><p>"Are you okay, Bluestreak?" Jack asked looking up at the gray mech.</p><p>"I'm fine. I'm just worried about how Sire has been acting since we've got here." Blustreak said. "I'm worried about my Carrier as well but let's forget about that for now. What is it you wanted to show us?"</p><p>"Wait a second, I actually have one question. Why's it you always called Jazz and Prowl Carrier and Sire?" Miko said, confused.</p><p>"Oh because they are my creators."</p><p>"It's our equivalent to Mother and Father, Miko." Bulkhead said walking over to where they were sitting. "Jazz and Prowl are Blue's parents in a sense. No, I will not explain how that is possible." Miko pouted at the last statement.</p><p>"Now I kinda get why you are worried about them. You really love your parents don’t you?" Jack leaned against the side of the couch the autobots had in the base for them.</p><p>"Of course! They have always tried to be there for me when I needed them and they never stopped fighting to keep me and my siblings safe. I appreciate everything they have done for me and I hope one day I can pay them back." Bluestreak said a small smile on his face.</p><p>"Jazz and Prowl will only tell you there is no reason to pay them back. Trust me I already tried." Mirage walked out of the hallway with Hound following behind him. Arcee leveled a glare at the spy who just walked past her without a single glance. Mirage had other things to worry about than the angry femme. "Anyways we should be heading out and getting our vehicle modes. If we are going to be on Earth for a while we are going to need to blend in. I notified Jazz and Prowl about this when we passed them but they said they'll look for theirs later." Bluestreak immediately stood up after Mirage said that. His mood went from serious to cheerful in a klik almost giving the humans whiplash.</p><p>"I almost forgot about that! I'm so excited to see what all you guys pick!" Bluestreak turned around and pulled both the twins up from where they were sitting.</p><p>"Sweetspark calm down you get any more excited and then we will have to spend the rest of the night calming you down." Sideswipe said making sure to watch his wording around the humans. He realized a moment afterwards that he could've just said it in cybertronian but it was already said.</p><p>"I'm going to get all the humans home. I'll most likely be back by the time you guys are done but it's getting late and it's almost curfew for Miko." Bulkhead said transforming for the humans to climb into his alt mode. Miko pouted as she climbed into the passenger seat with Jack and Rafael climbing into the back. Bulkhead took off through the groundbridge after they were all in. Mirage looked at Sideswipe with an amused look on his face before turning to Hound. </p><p>"Things will be interesting here that is for certain." Mirage said grabbing onto Hound's arm and leaning against him. Hound glanced down at his mate before looking around at the others. His gaze caught Arcee's glare and he decided that it was definitely going to be interesting.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Everything is Changing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Wait what do you mean dark energon?" Thundercracker asked looking down at Starscream who was snuggled into his side. After Starscream was cleared from the medbay by Knockout the three seekers went to Starscream's quarters. They were all currently curled up together on Starscream's berth as he recounted what has been going on since the other two seekers have been away. </p><p>"The blood of Unicron or whatever that fool calls it. He stabbed a shard directly into his spark chamber thinking it would give him control over an uncontrollable army. All that ended up happening is another failed assassination attempt and him landing into a coma. It also doesn't help that the autobots are also here." Starscream said resting his helm against Thundercracker's chassis. Skywarp grumbled a bit from the otherside of Starscream at the slight movement.</p><p>"So he's gotten even more insane since we were sent away. I still can't believe he made you believe we were dead. I'd kill him for that if we weren't still trying to keep up our cover. I vowed to always protect our trine and I feel like I've broken them by leaving you alone with that mech."</p><p>"Oh, Thunders, don't ever blame yourself. You didn't break our vows. I will always trust you to protect me and 'Warp from anything. Just like you trust me to always lead us down the correct path and how we both trust 'Warp to let us know when we are forgetting the bigger picture. I will always love the both of you with all my spark. Even if I do take on a conjunx you two will always come first to me." Starscream pressed a kiss to Thundercracker's chassis right where his spark chamber was located. "Nothing will break our bonds until we all return to the well together."</p><p>"Can ya two just stop being so cute? My spark can't take this. Anymore sweetness and I'm going ta spontaneously combust." Skywarp said lifting his helm up from Starscream's shoulder. "My conjunx and trine leader are conspiring to kill me."</p><p>"'Warp if we wanted to kill you you would've been extinguished before Star asked you to bond with us." Thundercracker chuckled at the purple and black seeker. "Also we need to find a moment when it's calm to send the signal to Jazz and Prowl to start phase 2. They are probably worried that we haven't sent them any word."</p><p>"Don't use logic with me. Ya know I hate logic. And those two will be fine. We'll get the signal out but for now I wanna cuddle with my trine because it's been a while since we were whole. I don't like feelin’ like a third of me is missin’." Skywarp proceeded to pull Starscream closer. "We also need ta renew the bond before doing anythin’."</p><p> </p><p>"I know that to be correct. Come on you two. I don't want to be able to leave this berth for at least two cycles."</p><p>-------</p><p>Soundwave was standing in front of the communications terminal when Megatron walked into the bridge. He pretended not to notice as Megatron started ranting about something. He halfway listened to the ranting while staying focused on the cameras in front of him. "Those idiots are supposed to be dead. This is going to be an issue with my plans. But no matter, they will be too helpless to stop me from harnessing the power of Unicron." Soundwave made sure to record the rant before sending it to a datapad in Starscream's quarters. He heard a tiny yawn come from his shoulder before tiny arms tried to hug his neck.</p><p>"Good morning mommy." Decoy said softly before moving back to mostly their original position but sitting on Soundwave's shoulder instead of laying down. Soundwave lifted up a servo and ruffled their black hair gently. Soundwave was so focused on Decoy and the cameras that he almost didn't notice Megatron behind him.</p><p>"You know I'm honestly surprised your little pet has survived this long. That's no matter, you can't keep up this charade forever. Humans have a shorter lifespan than us, you'll have to let it go at some point." Megatron said, almost growling. Soundwave picked up Decoy from his shoulder and held them close to his chassis to keep them out of Megatron's sight.</p><p>"There is work to be done master. Do you need anything important to be done or shall I go back to my job?" Starscream's voice filters out through his speakers as he keeps his visor hidden optics on the camera feed.</p><p>"You're correct as always Soundwave. There is work to be done. Make sure you continue to do your job or your human will pay for it in you stead." Megatron said before stalking out of the bridge. Soundwave let out a vent he didn't know he was holding before placing Decoy back onto his shoulder.</p><p>"I don't like the scary voice. He doesn't sound like a nice person." Decoy said snuggling against Soundwave's neck cables for comfort. Soundwave tried to hold it together. He didn't like to hear that his sparkling was scared but he couldn't fight against Megatron. Megatron was always there for him back when they were gladiators and back when the war started. He'd always come to him for advice or help. He trusted Soundwave to always be loyal. Something changed greatly since then and Soundwave knew one thing for sure. If he had to he would fight Megatron to keep his family safe.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Rescuing the Enemy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The groundbridge lit up as Bulkhead came limping through looking like he just got into a fight. Bluestreak looked up at the sound and let out a gasp. "What happened?" He asked as everyone else looked towards Bulkhead. Ratchet walked over to him and started looking over the wounds. </p><p>"Had a run in with Breakdown. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle." Bulkhead said as Ratchet grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him over to the makeshift medbay. </p><p>"You're supposed to contact one of us for back up if you run into an enemy, Bulkhead. You can't just run face first into a fight and hope for the best. You have more teammates on this planet to get a hold of now." Prowl said stepping in front of where Bulkhead was sitting. "I should lock you in your quarters for what happened but I'm more curious as to how you say Breakdown was there but he wasn't there when we showed up."</p><p>"Wait what do you mean? You guys didn't come in and finish him off?" Bulkhead asked, confused. He winced slightly as Ratchet started welding his wounds. He looked around at everyone currently in the room. Jazz shook his helm as Bumblebee beeped a negative. "He must've ran off or something after he knocked me out."</p><p>"This just confirms that Knockout is also here. Those two go absolutely nowhere without each other. But none of that, It's weird Breakdown just walked off without doing anything to you while you were offline." Mirage said from the crate he was sitting on. Hound was leaning next to him. </p><p>"'Raj is right. And if he called for someone ta grab him, they'da done somethin’ as well." Jazz said, crossing his arms. "Somethin’ must've happened if yer still alive and Breakdown is nowhere ta be found."</p><p>"Well that is a simple question to answer." Agent Fowler said walking out of the elevator into the Autobot base. "But first I need an answer as to why no one thought to notify me that more of your kind was showing up"</p><p>"Agent Fowler, I apologize for the lack of warning. I admit myself I wasn't expecting more Autobots to arrive. I'll make sure to do introductions later but more importantly, you know what happened to Breakdown." Optimus said walking over to the ledge Fowler was on.</p><p>"A group of mercenaries known as M.E.C.H. has him. They are most likely going to try to dissect him to see how he works."</p><p>"Which means a group of humans would have access to our technology." Prowl said walking forward. "We can't let that happen. I'll start on a rescue plan immediately. Agent Fowler, was it? If you have any more information on this group and a layout to their base of operations that would help me greatly."</p><p>"I'll get you what you need. Who are you anyway?" Fowler asked, eyeing the black and white mech.</p><p>"I am Prowl, Second in Command and Head Tactician for the Autobots."</p><p>"Prowl has been my right hand since the beginning of our long war. He has one of the most brilliant processors known to our kind and can plan for mostly everything and for everything he can't plan for that's where my Third in Command steps in." Optimus said immediately, stepping out of the way of the black and white saboteur.</p><p>"Name's Jazz, Third in Command, Saboteur, party mech, and Head of Spec ops. I'm great at thinkin’ on meh pedes and making sure slag get done." Jazz said wrapping an arm around Prowl as he walked forward. "Now we gotta mech ta save. Whatcha got that we could use?"</p><p>--------</p><p>Bluestreak was perched on a cliff under as much cover as he could get. He looked down the barrel of his rifle looking into the scope surveying the surroundings. ::I got a clearsight. In 10 kliks the next patrol should pass which means you guys have a openings for at least a breem.::</p><p>::I forget that you guys still use cybertronian time lengths.:: Arcee commented from her hiding spot with Bumblebee and Mirage.</p><p>::Does everyone know what the plan is?:: Prowl cut in. He was watching the front with Jazz.</p><p>::You and Jazz are going to sneak around the side after the patrol has passed and give us the signal to sneak into the back. After that we will split up to cover more ground while also staying aware of our surroundings. The second one of us finds Breakdown, we send a second signal over comms and try to get out with him as quickly and quietly as we can.:: Mirage commed ignoring Arcee's glare. </p><p>::I remain at my post and provide cover fire if needed.:: Bluestreak added.</p><p>::Good now stick to the plan. There is more room for error because we are bigger than the humans but please try to get in and get out as quickly and quietly as you can.:: And with that last comm the mission was started. Jazz and Prowl waiting for the patrol to pass before sneaking over to a garage door on the side. Jazz quietly lifted up the door as Prowl ducked in looking around for any humans nearby before letting Jazz know that the area was clear. The two of them sent a beep through the commline signaling the other's into action. They walked deeper into the base making sure to stick to area's they could easily hide. As soon as they turned one corner a pair of servos reached out and pulled the both of them into an empty side room. The room was obviously meant to house human jets. Jazz turned around to attack the mech who grabbed them only to stop in his tracks at the red optics that were narrowed at him. Jazz looked the red, silver, and blue mech up and down before grinning widely and whispering, "Starling!!"</p><p>"Hello, yes, good to see you two as well. Now, what the frag are you two doing here?" Starscream harshly whispered looking between Jazz and Prowl.</p><p>"We are here to rescue Breakdown before the humans try something." Prowl said looking at his amica. "And you were supposed to contact us the klik you were coherent."</p><p>"I was too busy getting knocked offline by my trinemates. But that's none of the matter right now. I'm here with Skywarp to rescue Breakdown. I was going to get in contact as soon as I could sway Knockout over to our side." Starscream said. "Anyways there are bigger things at stake. Megatron is going even more insane. He keeps raving about dark energon and Unicron. The fool even stabbed himself in the spark chamber with a shard of dark energon."</p><p>"Wait, Unicron? What's all that 'bout?" Jazz said, confused. He felt the now familiar itching at the edge of his processor at the mention of the name.</p><p>"I don't know. He thinks he can resurrect Unicron and become even more powerful in the process. He's lost his mind and currently I can't come back to debrief just yet. I need to make sure whatever he is planning doesn't get all of us killed." Starscream looked at Jazz.</p><p>"That makes sense. I hope you can come debrief soon but if things are as dire as you say, we can not afford to pull you out just yet." Prowl said. Suddenly a low pitch tone came through Jazz and Prowl's commlink as Starscream answered his. </p><p>"You got him out? I got you 'Warp. Get him back to base, I'll focus on getting out without being noticed." Starscream said moving towards one of the hanger's plane doors. "You two get out of here as quickly as you can. The second they notice Breakdown is gone they will go on lockdown."</p><p>"Stay safe out there Star. Hopefully we can meet under better circumstances." Prowl said waiting for Starscream to slip out before walking over to the same door. "Let's head back to base. It seems like we need to talk to Optimus about what exactly has been happening since we've been gone."</p><p>Jazz slipped under the door. "Let's go do that, lover." He said as he turned on his comm to tell the other's to head back to base. Something was definitely wrong here.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Something Wicked This Way Comes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Breakdown groaned as he came online, pain coursing through his entire frame. It took him a moment to realize his pain receptors were back online. He looked blearly around the room he was in and almost immediately recognized it as Knockout's medbay. He let out a vent of relief knowing he was back in safe servos. He heard the sound of pedes walking toward him shortly afterwards. "Knockout?" He called out his voice laced with static from both just onlining and from the pain. He felt something grab his right servo but was unable to see who it was without turning his helm.</p><p>"I'm right here, Breakdown. You are going to be out of it for a bit. If it wasn't for Commander Starscream and his teleporting friend we would've lost you. Now I'm going to give you a pain chip to help with some of the pain you are most likely feeling." Knockout said, trying to keep his voice calm and professional. His EM field was reigned in as tight as he could to keep from distressing Breakdown. He tilted Breakdown's helm a bit and inserted the pain chip into one of the medical ports. Knockout stood up and walked around the medbay acting like he was tidying stuff up. He looked around to make sure no one else was in the area before sending a code to the main entrance to lock the door. He walked back over to Breakdown sitting on his left side. He let his EM field flare out and opened his and Breakdown's bond. He threw his arms around Breakdown's neck. "Don't you ever scare me like that again. I don't think my spark could take it if something happened to you."</p><p>"KO.." Breakdown said before pulling the medic onto his lap and wrapping his arms around him. "I should have contacted you the second I ran into Bulkhead but I let my feelings get in the way. I apologize for any suffering I caused you sweetspark."</p><p>"You better be sorry. I'm never letting you out of my sight. I refuse to lose you. You're the only thing keeping me together." Knockout said resting his helm on Breakdown's chest plates. </p><p>"I didn't realize I scared you that much. The entire time they were poking at me and trying to take me apart all I could think about was getting back to you. Let's just rest for a bit before we have to go back to just acting like friends." Breakdown said laying down, pulling Knockout with him. Knockout snuggled into him keeping his helm where his Conjunx's spark was.</p><p>-------</p><p>Soundwave was in his quarters curled up around Lazerbeak and Decoy. He knew he had to be on shift in a groon but he wanted some time to himself. He watched his two bitlets sleep, idly wondering where the rest of his sparklings are and if they were okay. Soundwave gently stroked Lazerbeak's helm as he wondered how she must feel being separated from her twin. He let out a vent as he sat up sending a ping to Lazerbeak to dock while gently picking up Decoy. After making sure Lazerbeak was completely docked and Decoy was safely on his shoulder, he stood up and walked out of his quarters. Several Vehicons stared at the silent mech as he walked towards the bridge. He noticed something was off the second he stepped onto the bridge. Sitting on top one of the consoles, luckily not the communications console, was a purple and blue mech who wore a sly grin, golden optics filled with sadistic glee. Next to the mech was a familiar ex enforcer painted completely in black. Megatron was talking to the both of them as Soundwave walked over to the communications console. </p><p>"Oh look who just arrived for the party! Hello Soundwave. Lovely to see you again." The purple and blue mech said a slight giggle to his voice. Soundwave kept his optics on the screen in front of him choosing to ignore the mech. When he heard the giggle immediately turn into a growl he lashed out with his data cables pinning the mech to a nearby wall.</p><p>"There is work to be done." Starscream’s voice filtered through his speakers as he turned back to the console. "If I let you go do you promise to behave." Knockout's voice said next.</p><p>"You should know better than to try to attack Soundwave, Illusion. Not every mech that ignores you is doing it out of spite." The black mech said walking over to the pinned mech. "Let him go. I'll make sure he behaves."</p><p>Soundwave retracted his data cables letting Illusion go. He realized with their arrival that he'd have to up the security to his quarters. He decided to keep an optic on the two for now. Megatron had walked out of the bridge to attend to whatever he had been attending to recently. It bugged Soundwave that he didn't know what Megatron had planned. </p><p>"'Cade you're being rude. You should've just let me stab him." Illusion said with a pout.</p><p>"I'm not having a fight about how it’s a horrible idea to stab a telepath. I'm going for a drive. If I come back and you tried to attack someone again I'm putting you through the floor." The mech said before walking towards the console to activate the groundbridge. </p><p>"You're just going to leave me all alone here? Very well see if I talk to you when you get back, Barricade." Illusion said stomping off deeper into the ship. Barricade growled before walking off through the portal. Soundwave pinged Lazerbeak to detach and follow the mech while he followed Illusion on the cameras. Why were these two even here? Soundwave quickly sent a comm to Starscream letting him know about the recent arrivals. He didn't know why he became reliant on the seeker. Starscream had become the closest thing to a friend for the telepath during the three years Megatron was out in space. Recently since Starscream got his old body back he had started being a lot more nice. He decided not to worry about it for now and focused all of his attention onto the screens in front of him. There is work to be done.</p><p>--------</p><p>Barricade sped through the Nevada desert just enjoying being alone for the time being. He took in the sound of wind against his alt mode slightly happy to be away from the insane mech that had practically glued himself to his side. He shook the thought from his processor and decided to focus on driving. Just as he turned his attention back to what was in front of him something slammed into his side causing him to flip. After figuring out it's another mech Barricade quickly switched back into root mode to try to get the upper hand on his attacker. After rolling around for a bit Barricade managed to pin down the other mech. He looked down at his attacker before his EM field filled with shock. “Bumblebee?!”</p><p>Bumblebee glared up at him, his blue eyes deeping into a dark blue. He pulled his legs up and quickly kicked Barricade’s chassis. Barricade grunted at the kick before glaring down at the black and yellow mech. “If you think that’s going to make me let you go you have another thing coming.” He growled. Barricade found himself looking at Bumblebee up and down from where he had him pinned. “Someone definitely got an upgrade. Did Earth do this to ya or didja do this on your own.”</p><p>::Wouldn’t you like to know:: Bumblebee beeped at him in universal basic. Barricade looked at him even more shocked.</p><p>“What happened to your voice?” He asked carefully, not looking away from the mech’s optics.</p><p>::Megatron happened. You’re ‘glorious leader’ decided to rip my voice box out.::</p><p>Barricade slowly let go of Bumblebee’s servos moving to sit back. “I don’t know what to say.”</p><p>::Don’t say anything. I swear if you apologize for something you didn’t do, I’ll punch you harder than I currently want to.:: Bumblebee lifted himself up and proceeded to stand. ::We both need to head back to our bases anyways. ‘Cade I swear if I see you again, I’ll do everything in my power to take you into custody and have you pay for your crimes.:: Bumblebee transformed and sped off leaving Barricade just sitting there. Barricade let out a vent.</p><p>“Nice to see you again too, Bee.”</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Curiouser and Curiouser</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A loud scream ringing through the base had everyone looking around to find the source. Prowl looked over at Jazz who was clutching his helm tightly and looked like he was in pain. Prowl quickly ran over to his conjunx to try to figure out what was wrong. Jazz, himself, was freaking out. The clawing feeling had gotten worse and had now felt like it was trying to corrupt his processor. He heard a voice that seemed to come from inside him and all around him at the same time. <i>Just give in. Embrace the darkness inside you. Give into your instincts and destroy everything in your way.</i></p>
<p>“No!” Jazz screamed out trying to shake the voice from his helm. “I will not follow you! Get the frag outta meh helm!” </p>
<p>“Ratchet! Do you have any form of a sedative?” Prowl asked, keeping his optics on the distressed mech. Ratchet gave him a nod before running over to the makeshift medbay. Jazz dropped down to his knees still clutching at his helm. He started clawing at his audials to stop the voice from trying to manipulate him. Prowl quickly kneeled down in front of him and grabbed a hold of his servos. He sent Jazz feelings of love and worry through the bond to try and break him out of his state. Ratchet rushed over with a syringe and immediately jammed it into the saboteur's neck cables. Jazz slowly started to fall into stasis lock after that, leaning heavily against the medic. Ratchet picked up the polyhexian and moved him to the medical  berth. Prowl crawled in next to him refusing to leave his conjunx’s side. Everyone else continued to watch the scene with a mixture of worry and concern.</p>
<p>“Until Jazz onlines, everyone just focus on your usual tasks for now. There’s nothing else we can do until he is lucid.” Ratchet said shooing everyone away from the couple. Mirage and Bumblebee glanced at each other before transforming and heading out on patrol. Hound went back to his conversation with Bulkhead, glancing over at the two commanding officers every so often. Bluestreak perched himself on a crate close enough to the medbay that Ratchet only gave him a look. He brought out his rifle and started to take it apart and clean it to distract himself from his thoughts. Optimus looked over at his S.I.C and T.I.C before letting out a vent and turning back to the monitors. Arcee and Sideswipe transformed and headed out to go pick up the children. Sunstreaker leaned next to Bluestreak and pulled a datapad and stylus out of his subspace.</p>
<p>--------</p>
<p>Jazz groaned as he came back online. He felt something pressing against his side and started tense up until he felt the familiar spark signature that he knew like the back of his servo. He sat up slowly, careful not to jostle Prowl too much. He onlined his optics before immediately getting blinded by a medical light. “Ow! What the frag, Ratch!”</p>
<p>“Sit still for one moment. I need to make sure all of your vitals are fine and that you are lucid before letting anyone start to question you on your freakout earlier.” Ratchet said before checking Jazz completely over. The saboteur groaned his displeasure at the procedure. He just had a panic attack, why did his vitals need to be checked? After that thought left his processor he realized that it was probably because he has been avoiding Ratchet and the medic was using this as an excuse to do his examination. Jazz let out a vent as Ratchet looked him over. Optimus walked over to them after Ratchet finished his examination. </p>
<p>"How are you feeling, my friend?" Optimus asked looking down at where Jazz is sitting.</p>
<p>“I’m sound of mind if that’s watcha askin’.” Jazz said looking up at the prime.</p>
<p>“Then you probably should be able to answer what happened to have you freak out earlier.”</p>
<p>Jazz let out a vent and looked down at Prowl who was still in recharge. “I honestly don’t fully know. What I can say is, it feels like Unicron has been tryin’ to take over meh frame. He’s just been clawing at my processor tryin’ ta get meh ta cave in and go insane. He wants meh ta hurt my family.”</p>
<p>“And it started when you first onlined on this planet, didn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Yeah it did. I’m not going ta standby and let him manipulate me ta hurt Prowler or meh sparklin’s.”</p>
<p>“I know you won’t. But please, Jazz, let us know when it starts back up again. We are a team and a team helps each other no matter what. I dislike seeing one of my friends suffering and not know how to help.”</p>
<p>Jazz nodded his helm. He looked back up at Optimus before saying, “I’ll try my best but it’ll be tough.”</p>
<p>-------</p>
<p>“Really, Lord Megatron? I don’t understand why we are back here. This mine has been stripped clean.” Starscream said after they landed outside a familiar cave. Starscream crossed his arms and glared at the warlord for forcibly dragging him from the safety of his trine all the way out to an abandoned energon mine.</p>
<p>“Just indulge me for a klik, Starscream?” Megatron said as he walked deeper into the mine. Starscream followed after him keeping to a distance. He did not like the tone in his voice. Starscream knew that tone very well. He wanted to turn back but he knew if he disobeyed he would just be even more injured. He kept his pace even and his arms crossed giving off an air of nonchalance. As they walked into one of the bigger tunnels Starscream saw the abandoned drills and realized exactly why they were here. “Well what do we have here?” Megatron said looking straight at the drills.</p>
<p>“A blatant disregard for orders, obviously.” Starscream said rolling his optics. “If that’s all we came here for I’ll get some vehicons on this immediately and have the drills moved to one of our other sites, my Lord.”</p>
<p>“It’s more than that, Starscream.” Megatron punched into the wall next to him and pulled out a chunk of raw energon crystals. “It appears you have been keeping a stash of energon all for yourself.” He let the crystals hit the ground as he started walking towards Starscream. “What do you have to say for yourself?”</p>
<p>Starscream took a step back as Megatron advanced on the seeker. Megatron raised his ion cannon and started powering it up. Starscream lifted his arms up to cover himself. He refused to beg for his freedom. He glanced over to one of the many exits, contemplating if he’d make it there in time, as one of the autobot humans stepped in front of it. Arcee walked out from behind the human and noticed the scene happening in front of them. Megatron let out a yell as he started shooting at the femme. Starscream silently thanked her as he ran through a separate tunnel. Megatron called after him calling him a traitor and a coward. Soon enough the rocks started to fall from all of the blaster fire. Starscream ran as fast as he could before he had to transform to gain more speed. He soon realized he wasn’t going to be fast enough as a rock hit him causing him to crash to the ground. After the rocks settled, he started trying to dig his way out. He needed to get out of this claustrophobic tunnel. He eventually reached the surface and pulled himself out. “Thank Primus. I thought I would never see the sky again.”</p>
<p>He looked to the hole he crawled out of wondering slightly if Megatron had broken loose yet. He then briefly wondered about Arcee and realized that she, and the human, were most likely still trapped down there. He decided that he was going to go back in and get them out. Even if they didn’t know he was on their side he couldn’t leave an ally in trouble especially if Megatron got himself loose. He climbed back into the hole and started walking around keeping his audials dialed up for any noise. He heard a banging coming from nearby and started to walk towards it. He pulled a few stones out of the way creating a hole big enough to look through. Inside was Bulkhead who appeared to be holding up the ceiling and another human. Bulkhead looked up at him and seemed puzzled for a klik before realization dawned on him. “Miko, Run!”</p>
<p>Starscream broke down the rest of the rock wall before walking in. The human, Miko, looked at him exhausted and confused. “Who are you?”</p>
<p>“That’s Starscream. Get away from him!”</p>
<p>Miko’s eyes widened looking at the seeker before running and hiding behind Bulkhead’s pede.</p>
<p>“Calm down. I’m here to help believe it or not. Now give me a klik to figure out what we are working with here.” Starscream said looking at the situation. He pulled a small cylindrical object out of his subspace. “Prowl is going to hate me for this but he has his backup anyways.” He held the object vertical and pressed a button causing the object to extend. One end hit the roof while the other end hit the ground. “There that should hold it long enough to get us out of here. Now when I say run. Run.” </p>
<p>Bulkhead looked at the seeker, suspicious of his intentions. He nodded as Starscream walked closer and knelt down. “Climb on.” Starscream said to Miko holding out a servo. She looked at him weirdly before doing exactly what he said. Starscream slowly lifted her up and settled her into his cockpit. “Now, Run!” With that Starscream ran towards the exit as Bulkhead let go of the roof to follow after. Shortly after they got out the pole gave out and the rock came down. Starscream and Bulkhead left out a simultaneous vent of relief before Starscream opened his cockpit to let Miko out. He handed the girl over to Bulkhead and started to walk further into the cave system. “Find Arcee and get out of here. Tell no one that I helped you.”</p>
<p>“Why did you help us anyways?” Bulkhead asked, still suspicious of the seeker.</p>
<p>“All will be explained in due time. Just know for now not everything is what it seems.” Starscream walked off disappearing deeper into the mine shaft. Bulkhead watched after him before looking at Miko. He walked off to find Arcee and Jack.</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Allegiance Revealed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Barricade was trying to recharge when he felt a weight on his abdomen. He onlined one of his optics to see Illusion sitting on top of him with his arms crossed and pouting. Barricade let out an annoyed grunt. "What do you want this time?" He growled, half tempted to just throw the mech off and go back to recharge. </p><p>"You've been avoiding me. You know how I feel about being avoided." Illusion said glaring at Barricade. </p><p>Barricade rolled his optics, both of them online now, before rolling over and pinning Illusion down to the berth. "You were the one who said you didn't want to talk to me, brat. Don't go trying to pin your actions onto me."</p><p>"Ha you should have realized I was a brat the second you got me into berth. You know how I am." Illusion said a sly smirk appearing on his face. "Besides I've been feeling very lonely since you decided to give me the cold shoulder. You should make it up to me." Illusion lifted up one of his legs before hooking it onto Barricade’s hip and pulling the mech closer. Barricade sent him a glare.</p><p>"You're a fragging tease, you know that?" Illusion's smirk just widened as he twisted one of his arms loose from Barricade’s hold. He pressed his servo against the darker mech's face before trailing it down.</p><p>"Just shut up and frag me."</p><p>-----------</p><p>Starscream can feel the anger through his bond before he even stepped pede into the medbay. He walked in quickly to see what had set off Skywarp only to see him and Knockout glaring at each other. "Calm the frag down, it was just a scratch." Skywarp said annoyance filling his EM field. "Some of us have had limbs torn off. Don't come at meh with the whole scratched paint nonsense."</p><p>"What's going on here?" Starscream asked, crossing his arms. "I leave the ship for at least a groon and you all decide to jump down each other’s throats?"</p><p>"He started it." Knockout spoke up glaring at the black and purple seeker.</p><p>"I don't care who started it. I'm finishing it. Before things get dangerous and Skywarp hurts anyone." Starscream walked over to Skywarp and stroked his wings gently. Skywarp slowly untensed his plating leaning into the touch. </p><p>"Wait why are you concerned with him hurting me?" Knockout asked, slightly confused.</p><p>"Seeker claws can do a lot of damage due to how sharp they are. That and Skywarp was raised with a fight for his life mentality." Thundercracker spoke up from where he was leaning against a wall. "It was interesting the first few nights when he actually started living with us. He'd wake up in the middle of the night cycle and lash out at whoever was closest which was me half the time. I didn't mind it much because I have thicker plating. Starscream on the other hand."</p><p>"I could handle myself. Metalhawk was overseeing my training personally." Starscream said, a bit huffy. "Anyways if you all are done with fighting. Me and my trine are needed on the bridge."</p><p>“Have fun, Herr Commander.” Knockout said as the three seekers left the medbay. He looked over at Breakdown who was still looking at the door. “Are you okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s just. Has Starscream seemed different to you since he got his old body back? Like he’s less confrontational and more calm and calculating? I haven’t seen him talk about dethroning Megatron or anything since the spark transfer.” Breakdown said leaning against the medical berth. “And his so-called bodyguard seems oddly protective of him.”</p><p>“Well that last part can just be chalked up to normal seeker behavior. At least one member of a trine will be extremely protective of the other two. You are correct. Starscream’s personality has definitely changed. We could ask Soundwave if he acted this way at the start of the war. They knew each other back then.” Knockout started walking around organizing stuff as he was speaking.</p><p>“Okay we’ll do that later.”</p><p>-------</p><p>Starscream walked onto the bridge only to hear Airachnid’s voice saying, “Starscream didn’t tell you?”</p><p>“If he’s up to his old tricks again. I’ll turn him into a powder.” Megatron responded to the spiderformer.</p><p>“And what did I do this time?” Starscream asked. Megatron and Airachnid turned to the seeker at the sound of his voice. “If you’re going to accuse me of something I’d rather you just tell me.”</p><p>“Looks like someone got a new look recently.” Airachnid said, noting the frame change.</p><p>“Actually, I’m feeling more like my old self. Now, what was it I have failed to mention?” Starscream asked, feeling slightly annoyed. He had more important things to be doing than dealing with the ship's normal insanity.</p><p>“The Harbinger.” Megatron said, glaring down the seeker.</p><p>“Yes? What about it?”</p><p>“Eons ago, a decepticon transport ship-” Airachnid started before she was interrupted.</p><p>“Crashed on Earth. Yes we all know. I personally scouted it out myself when we first landed. Got any newer information to add? Or are we just going to say things everyone already knows?”</p><p>“Did you recover the prototype weapon that was on the transport, then?” </p><p>“If it was there, it was gone by the time I scouted the ship. I found nothing of use.”</p><p>“Then why wasn’t the ship logged.”</p><p>“I don’t know about you, Airachnid, but when things are useless it goes without saying that it doesn’t need to be used.”</p><p>“Then I guess you won’t mind checking again. This time with Airachnid there with you.” Megatron said looking between the two. “And you are not allowed to take your trine with you.”</p><p>“Fine. But don’t come crying to me when we don’t find anything. Airachnid, I’ll be in my quarters when you are ready to go.” Starscream walked out of the bridge as Thundercracker and Skywarp followed him.</p><p>-------</p><p>Barricade vented to himself as he raised his servo to knock on Starscream’s door. The door slid open immediately afterwards revealing the seeker. “Oh Barricade. For a second I thought you were Airachnid. Do come in, please?” Starscream stepped out of the way letting the mech into his quarters.</p><p>“Where’s your trinemates?” Barricade asked looking around.</p><p>“They decided to go for a flight together. Now come on sit down and tell me what brings you here. You rarely if ever actually visit without a reason.” Starscream said sitting on the edge of his berth. Barricade let out another vent before sitting next to him. </p><p>"How do you tell someone that refuses to leave you alone that you don't want him around anymore?" Barricade asked looking down at his servos.</p><p>"I assume you already told him to leave you alone? If it's who I think it is I already warned you it was a bad idea to get involved."</p><p>"Yeah yeah. Are you sure you never carried? Because you sure do act like a carrier."</p><p>"Please the closest thing I have to sparklings is my amica's and my trinemates. That includes you, you know?"</p><p>"My family doesn't want anything to do with me. You don't think I don't see the look of disappointment I get from Jazz and Prowl? Or the fact that Bluestreak wants me dead?"</p><p>"Bluestreak doesn't want you dead. He wants an actual apology. Also punch me if I'm wrong but Prowl would take you back in a sparkbeat if you allowed him too."</p><p>"Yeah, right. After everything I've done? How are you so sure about this?"</p><p>"Call it me knowing my amica better than he knows himself sometimes. Just remember there is always a choice. I'll back you up if you ever decide to go home. Your sire and carrier would appreciate having all their sparklings close by. Even if one has slightly lost his way."</p><p>"Do you think me apologizing would get Bluestreak to refer to me as his brother again?"</p><p>"Possibly. You never know until you do. Now get on your way. Airachnid will be here any klik and I can't have cons think I've gone soft."</p><p>Barricade nodded before standing up and walking over to the door. “Talk to you when you get back?”</p><p>“I’ll be here.”</p><p>-------</p><p>“You know, you could at least tell me what it is you are looking for.” Starscream said just after they landed.</p><p>“And here I thought the first thing you were going to talk about was my alt mode.” Airachnid said glancing at the seeker. “To answer your statement, that is a need to know basis and currently you don’t need to know.”</p><p>“Fine then be that way. The wreckage of the Harbinger is directly below us. We just need to locate a point of-” Starscream started to say before he was interrupted by Airachnid using her body to drill into the ground. “Nevermind then.” Starscream decided to find a different entrance to the wreckage. After getting into the ship he followed after Airachnid.<br/>“I’ll have you know, I looked all over this ship and haven’t found anything.” He said as Airachnid started turning on the control panel. He raises an optic ridge at her actions wondering if he should warn her that it’ll only bring the Autobots to their location. </p><p>“Well according to this there should be a cargo hold deeper in the ship.” Airachnid said before backing away from the computer and walking deeper into the ship. Starscream let out a vent before following after her. The sooner they get this done with the sooner he’ll be back with his trine. He vaguely felt like he was forgetting something as they walked further into the wreckage. Soon enough they stopped at a wall of dirt. Starscream then remembers that the ship was blown in half. “It’s supposed to be right here but the ship just stops.” Airachnid said, turning to look at Starscream. “You know where the other half is, don’t you?”</p><p>“Maybe I do, Maybe I don’t. The ship was shot down by Autobots long before we were even on this planet. How would I know where the other half is?” Starscream asked, glaring at the spider. Without warning Airachnid wrapped him in her web making him fall to the ground. She walked over to him and held one of her spiderlegs near his neck cables.</p><p>“You’ll tell me where it is or else.”</p><p>Starscream looked between her and the leg before letting out a vent. The Autobots will get her before she even leaves this half of the ship. “A few kliks north of here through a stone arch.” She retracted the leg after that and started walking to the exit.</p><p>“Don’t worry I’ll come back for you. After I find that weapon. Maybe.” She let out a laugh and left Starscream laying there. As soon as she left the room, She ran back in the Autobots following right after her. She used her drill mode to dig a tunnel out from the wall behind them as Arcee followed her. Optimus ran out of the room most likely to follow the femme as Bumblebee and Bulkhead stayed with Starscream. Bulkhead stared at Starscream for a bit as Bumblebee helped him stand up. They both walked him to the exit to where Arcee and Optimus were waiting. Optimus looked over at their approach and his optics widened in surprise. Starscream then remembered that this was the first time that he'd seen him since the spark transfer. </p><p>Bumblebee forced Starscream to his knees in front of Optimus. “Do that any rougher and then we’ll have bigger problems on our servos.” Starscream said before letting out a vent. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”</p><p>“Why should we trust you?” Arcee said glaring at the seeker.</p><p>“Because at this point I no longer care. Megatron wants to slag me for things I had no control over. And the added fact he did something to me that I cannot and will not forgive.” </p><p>“What did he do that was unforgivable?” Optimus asked.</p><p>“That’ll be explained later. For now, I’m your best bet at finding Airachnid. I know exactly where she’s gone.”</p><p>The autobots took one look at him before stepping away to discuss their options. He looked at the ground and hoped they'd trust him for now. After a while they stepped back over. “Okay we will trust you for now. But understand that you are on thin ice.” Arcee said.</p><p>“I understand.”</p><p>--------</p><p>Starscream winced as Airachnid threw him to the ground in front of Megatron. “You’ll never guess what I just found out about your precious little seeker.” She said a slight giggle to her tone. “Starscream here has been an autobot spy this entire time! Not like they will take him back now. Not after they found out who really killed that one red autobot.”</p><p>Megatron leveled a glare at the seeker. “Is this true, Starscream? Are you even more of a traitorous glitch than we thought you were?” Megatron walked forward and roughly grabbed one of Starscream’s wings. He started to bend it when he didn’t receive an answer. “Answer me!”</p><p>“Why would I answer when everything is already out there on the table?” Starscream asked. Megatron growled and raised his fist back landing a blow on Starscream’s side. He proceeded to punch him repeatedly in different sections of his frame. Starscream clenched his derma refusing to beg. After a while Skywarp finally had enough and ran up to the tyrant. He quickly grabbed one of Starscream’s arms and teleported him out of harm's way.</p><p>“So Skywarp it appears you are taking Starscream’s side. Know that this also makes you a traitor as well and you’ll both suffer.” Megatron said, glaring at both the seekers. “Thundercracker. You’re trinemates have abandoned the cause and betrayed us all. Deal with them.”</p><p>Thundercracker walked forward and raised one of his incendiary guns. He looked straight at Starscream and Skywarp. He waited for a moment before turning around and firing at Megatron. He quickly ran over to Starscream and Skywarp as he heard Megatron’s Ion cannon start powering up. Before the shot could hit the three of them Skywarp teleported them out of the nemesis and in the middle of the Nevada desert. Thundercracker stood up as Skywarp gathered Starscream into his arms. “::TC to Meister. We have the target and are ready for pickup. Sending coordinates now.::”</p><p>::Roger that TC standby for pickup.:: A green groundbridge opened up a few meters in front of them. Starscream struggled to his pedes with the help of his trinemates as Prowl,Jazz, Optimus, Ratchet, and Arcee stepped through the portal. Arcee immediately raised her blaster before Jazz shot her a glare through his visor. Prowl ignored it and proceeded to walk forward.</p><p>“Be still my broken wings.” Prowl said, looking directly at Starscream. Starscream pushed away from Thundercracker and Skywarp and took a step forward.</p><p>“So that one cycle I, too, will fly again.” Starscream responded. He crashed back down to his knees as coolant started pouring from his optics. He was done. He was finally done. Prowl ran forward and wrapped Starscream up in a hug. After a while, Jazz and Starscream’s trine also joined in on the hug. Starscream finally felt like he had his family back.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Twists and Turns</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Starscream groaned as he woke up, pain lacing through his frame. He onlined his optics to a glaring light. He hissed as his helmache flared up. “Oh calm down it’s just a flashlight.” He heard a voice say from close by. He slowly figured out that it was Ratchet. He relaxed back into the medberth as he remembered what had occurred within the past few cycles. He looked around the makeshift medbay. Thundercracker and Skywarp were curled up together close by. Prowl was talking to Ratchet with Jazz standing next to him. And Optimus Prime was standing a slight bit away glancing over at Starscream.</p><p>Starscream let out a vent as he offlined his optics again. He thought he would be able to get some more recharge until he felt something tiny crawl onto the berth. He looked down at the disturbance and saw one of the humans the autobots have been protecting. “Oh, hello, you’re Miko, aren’t you?”</p><p>“And you're supposed to be the big bad evil Starscream, second in command of the decepticons. You seem a lot nicer than you probably should be.” Miko said, eyeing him curiously.</p><p>“It looks like our cover for you held solid for the most part.” Prowl said walking over. He sat down on the edge of the berth making sure not to accidentally sit on Miko. "How are you feeling, Star?"</p><p>"Like I've annoyed Metalhawk and he decided to teach me a lesson for being a 'braty princeling'." Starscream said laughing lightly. "That or I distracted TC from his training again."</p><p>“That is not what I meant and you know it.” Prowl said flicking the seeker in the forehelm.</p><p>“Ow! And people say I’m the stubborn one. I feel better for the most part. Like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Like I can actually start being myself again. It honestly is a good feeling but I can't help but be terrified about what Megatron is planning."</p><p>"Whatcha mean? Starling is there somethin’ yer not sayin’?" Jazz said sitting down on the other side of their berth.</p><p>“Well-” Starscream was quickly interrupted by Bluestreak running into the makeshift medbay with Mirage and the twins following him. Bluestreak’s optics zeroed in on Starscream but, before he could run over, Ratchet stepped in front of the Praxian blocking his path.</p><p>“Starscream just onlined and is still hurt. I advise you not to aggravate his wounds until he is fully healed up.” The medic said before letting Bluestreak pass. Ratchet grabbed Miko from off the medical berth before Bluestreak walked forward. Miko let out a noise of protest as Ratchet walked out of the medbay with her. “They need some family time.”</p><p>Starscream looked at Bluestreak before his optics began to fill with coolant. “Is that really you baby blue?”</p><p>“Yeah it’s me Uncle Star.” Bluestreak said as Optimus slipped out of the room to give the family privacy.</p><p>------</p><p>Barricade growled when he saw Illusion in his doorway effectively blocking him from leaving. “Get out of my way.”</p><p>“No, I want attention.” Illusion said crossing his arms. He had a pout on his face thinking it would get Barricade to do what he wants. Barricade glared at the smaller mech before pushing him out of the way. He was not dealing with this today. He walked towards the bridge keeping his optics off the mech following behind him. </p><p>“I want to be alone. I most definitely don't want to be around you either. Illusion you may think that we have some kind of relationship but I don’t even like you. You’re an annoyance that won’t leave me the frag alone.” Barricade said as he walked into the bridge. He sent random coordinates to Soundwave before walking over to the groundbridge. </p><p>“Please. Deny it all you want but you are in love with me and I’ll prove it.” Illusion said as he went over to one of the consoles to pretend to be working. Barricade rolled his optics before stepping through the groundbridge. That mech was going to drive him insane. He already had enough to deal with after Starscream, the only bit of family that was still there for him, was revealed to be a spy. He let out a vent before transforming into his altmode and taking off. He didn’t care how fast he was going just as long as he could just drive without interruptions. After a while of driving a yellow and black blurr sped past him. Taking this as a challenge, Barricade immediately took off after the mech. They raced each other for several hours before Barricade got bored and transformed back into root mode. The other mech did the same revealing himself to be exactly who Barricade thought he was.</p><p>“What happened to arresting me the next time you saw me, Bee?” Barricade said a light chuckle to his voice. Bumblebee leveled a glare at him.</p><p>::You’re not the only one that needs to escape from time to time.:: Bumblebee commed, an annoyed note to his tone.</p><p>“Yeah but you’re not the one with energon on your servos.” Barricade responded before starting to walk in a random direction. Bumblebee stared after him for a klik before running slightly forward to keep up with the mech’s steps. Honestly, they shouldn’t even be seen together but, after everything that has happened in the past few cycles, Bee decided he didn’t care. They both walked in complete silence through the desert. “If you could go back and change one thing, what would you change?” Barricade said after a while.</p><p>Bumblebee thought about it for a second before responding, ::Probably making sure to follow Jazz’s orders next time instead of not being cautious and getting captured. What about you?::</p><p>“I guess not believing Megatron’s lies and helping in destroying my home. Bluestreak still hasn’t forgiven me for that and I honestly doubt he ever will. Not like I deserve forgiveness anyways. I have done too much bad to be able to change anything.”</p><p>Bumblebee looked at him for a klik before turning his optics forward. ::Maybe you’re not as far from redemption than you think you are.:: Bumblebee quickly transformed and raced off leaving Barricade standing there. Barricade stared after him before comming Soundwave for a bridge back. </p><p>“You say the weirdest things sometimes, Bee.”</p><p>---------</p><p>Soundwave stared down at the console in front of him. It had been a few cycles since the reveal of Starscream being a spy. He still couldn’t wrap his processor around it. The only mech that could be considered his friend was one of the enemies. In retrospect it had made sense with Starscream’s recent personality change and the arrival of Thundercracker and Skywarp. Soundwave turned around to leave the console to go recharge only to come face to face with a tired looking Megatron. He took a step back immediately bumping into the console behind him. Megatron reached a servo out like he was going to touch him only to pull back when he saw Soundwave flinch. Megatron let out a vent before walking out of the bridge leaving a confused Soundwave staring after him. A tiny yawn sounded from his shoulder causing Soundwave to shake the encounter out of his helm. He focused on Decoy who had just woken up. “Mommy, I’m hungry.” Decoy said, blindly reaching out to hug Soundwave’s neck.</p><p>“Let’s go get you something to eat tiny fleshing.” Starscream’s voice said from his speakers before he could stop it. Soundwave felt coolant pool at the edges of his optics beneath his visor. He shook himself out of it as he proceeded to walk back to his quarters to get Decoy some food.</p><p>---------</p><p>Illusion let out a scream as he threw one of his dagger’s at a random vehicon. It struck in the center of the Vehicon’s helm taking them immediately offline.</p><p>“Someone’s definitely not happy.” Airachnid said walking into the room.</p><p>“What are you talking about? I’m a fragging ray of sunshine.” Illusion growled, turning to glare at the spider. </p><p>“Oh, my bad, you are nothing but sunshine and rainbows.”</p><p>“What do you want, Spiderglitch?”</p><p>“That’s no way to treat an ally. Especially one that has information about a specific dark mech that may not be as faithful to you as you think.” Illusion’s glare deepened at what the femme said.</p><p>“And what do you mean by that? Explain yourself or I’ll separate your helm from your frame.” </p><p>“Found this datapad in Starscream’s old quarters. Take a look for yourself.” Airachnid threw the datapad at Illusion before walking out of the room. Illusion caught it as he watched her leave. He looked at the datapad curiously before turning it on.</p><p>-------</p><p>Hound was taking a stroll through the woods when he felt something staring at him. He looked around trying to figure out where it was coming from. He spotted absolutely nothing and decided to walk back to the base. The more he walked the worse the feeling got. After a while he felt something brush past him but couldn’t see what it was. He stopped in his tracks and looked around again. He sniffed around trying to see if he couldn't smell the thing following him. He then caught a whiff of a familiar scent as the creature made to brush past him again. He reached out one of his arms and pulled the creature towards him. “You’re gonna have to work better than that to spook me, sweetspark.” He said as Mirage deactivated his invisibility.</p><p>“And here I thought I would be able to this time.” Mirage said, wrapping his arms around Hound’s neck. “Optimus had said you went for a walk. I wanted to have some time to ourselves for a bit. With Optimus and Prowl having you scout for energon and I being busy with patrols, we hardly have time for each other.”</p><p>“I know what you mean, my dear spark. Come with me. There’s something I want to show you real quick.” Hound said picking Mirage up into his arms.</p><p>“You do know it’s hard to actually come with you if you just pick me up like this?”</p><p>“Oh I know but this way is more fun.” Hound started walking in a seemingly random direction. Mirage leaned against him, enjoying the presence of his conjunx. “You know sometimes I look back on my life and I am happy that it led me to you.”</p><p>“Aww you’re so sweet, Hound. I’m happy to have you in my life as well. Honestly I’m lucky that I managed to even get you in my life.”<br/>“What do you mean by that? I should be the lucky one. I got myself a gorgeous, kind, and caring mech that is not afraid to fight for what he believes in.”</p><p>“If we get into this we are just going to have a fight about how much we adore each other.” Mirage let out a small giggle. “At least it’s better than the fights me and Cliffjumper would get into.”</p><p>“It is sad that he is gone. Even if you two were constantly at each other’s throats. I’m honestly surprised Jazz didn’t get to him first.”</p><p>“You and me both, My Dear.”</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Past is Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Beta: ToraOkami303</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Starscream was staring out into the distance from a cliff. He let out a vent thinking about the events that have occurred over the past few cycles. After a while, he heard the sound of a groundbridge opening behind him. “Prowl said you would be out here.” Optimus said walking up to the seeker. He sat down next to him.</p><p>“And here I thought I was doing a great job of hiding.” Starscream said sarcastically.</p><p>“It seems like the vorns haven’t changed you.”</p><p>“What are you expecting from this, Orion?” Starscream lifted his helm from where he was resting it on his knees. “We can’t go back to how we were at the archives.”</p><p>Optimus let out a heavy vent. “I know. Sometimes I wish I could go back to then. When everything was a lot more simple and all I had to worry about is whether or not that viciously smart seeker would appear again.”</p><p>“You made things complicated. I do miss those days as well but, we can’t return to that. We both have changed so much since this war has started. You just found out that I’m actually one of your subordinates. It would be nice to go back to a time where we were younger and were only concerned about our feelings for each other. Where our friends would make fun of us for holding back.”</p><p>“You never did answer my proposal for courtship before you left with your exploration partner. Just said you’d tell me when you got back.”</p><p>“And when I got back I was immediately framed for murder and forced to go back home. If things had been different, I probably would have accepted. But that was then, now we have a war. We don’t have time to dwell on our feelings anymore.” Starscream moved to stand but felt something gently grab his arm. Optimus stood up next to him.</p><p>“I just want you to know one last thing before we go back. My feelings for you haven’t changed. I’ll continue waiting for you until you are ready.”</p><p>“You’re such a sap, you know that?”</p><p>--------</p><p>Skywarp had been hanging upside-down from one of the metal beams on the ceiling. He was bored out of his processor and was trying to think of anything fun he could do. He looked down towards the ground to see Thundercracker and Bulkhead staring up at him. "What? Neva seen someone hangin’ out before?"</p><p>"You really got to tell me how the two of you ended up conjunx’s. You both seem just too different." Bulkhead said, turning to look at Thundercracker who was standing there with his arms crossed.</p><p>"Seeker instincts mostly. He gets into situations like this and I can't help but want to protect him. That and he does have his sweet side even if it's buried under vorns of living on the streets and defending himself." Thundercracker said. "Sky, sweetpark, get down from there before Star walks in and gets a spark attack. You know how he is."</p><p>Skywarp pouted before grasping a hold of the beam on both sides of his legs. He flipped himself over then let go into a free fall. Thundercracker acted immediately and held his arms out for the smaller seeker catching him easily. </p><p>"Oh wow that was so cool!!" Miko exclaimed, running out of the elevator. "Do it again!"</p><p>"He's not doing it again." Thundercracker said, setting Skywarp down. "And he better not or I'll sic Prowl on him."</p><p>"Awh TC, I was just having fun…" Skywarp said pouting. Starscream walked into the base shortly after that.</p><p>"My Skywarp is doing something stupid alarm was going off. What happened?" Starscream asked walking over to the other two seekers.</p><p>"Skywarp decided it'll be a great idea to jump from the beams above us." Bulkhead said drawing most of the attention his way. "Me and Thundercracker here just got back from patrol when we noticed him." Skywarp quickly teleported away as the words left Bulkhead’s mouth. Thundercracker let out a vent.</p><p>"I'm gonna go find him." Thundercracker said as he turned around only to see Skywarp right behind him. “Nevermind. Someone wants to be a mischievous brat today.”</p><p>“I’m always a mischievous brat.” Skywarp said, giving Thundercracker a peck on the check before walking over to Mirage. “But now that you’re back it’s time for my turn to patrol.”</p><p>“Stay safe, Sweetspark.”</p><p>-------</p><p>Prowl was looking at the monitors as Optimus was telling everyone else about the dark prophecy. He personally didn’t believe in it but with everything that has happened caution was needed. He glanced over at Jazz who was leaning against a wall with his visor off. Prowl was worried about his conjunx. Jazz hasn’t been the same since they landed on Earth. Prowl let out a vent before walking over to Jazz and leaning against him. Jazz wrapped one of his arms around Prowl and placed a kiss to his chevron. “Somethin’ big is gonna happen soon.” Jazz whispered quietly so only Prowl could hear.</p><p>“What do you mean?” Prowl responded just as quietly. He looked at his mate noticing that Jazz had his visor on but it was very dim. “Do you want to go talk about this in our quarters?”</p><p>Jazz nodded his helm as he started moving. He kept his arm around Prowl’s waist as they walked to their quarters vaguely hearing Ratchet talk about Optimus’s past in the background. As they arrived at their room Jazz pulled Prowl inside and triple locked the door behind them. He pulled Prowl closer resting his helm against Prowl’s shoulder. “I keep gettin visions of what I believe is the future. That prophecy is gonna come true but it’s complicated.”</p><p>“What do you mean it is complicated? Jazz, what is going to happen?” Prowl asked, trying to pull back to look into Jazz’s visor.</p><p>“I dunno how exactly ta explain it. Somethin’ is going ta happen but what it is is vague ta meh.” Jazz pulled them both over to the berth. “The visions are blurry at best but I’ll do meh best ta see what I can’t make of ‘em.”</p><p>“Also know I am here for you to lean on. We are partners. We made it this far together. We can face whatever is thrown our way. Just please rely on me as I rely on you.” Prowl crawled onto the berth and laid down. Jazz immediately laid down next to him and pulled him back into his arms.</p><p>“I will always rely on ya, Prowler. Yer the only thing keepin’ meh sane.”</p><p>-------</p><p>Starscream was looking at a datapad that Prowl had handed to him when Arcee walked up. He looked up at the femme with a questioning look on his face. “Anything you need?”</p><p>“Yeah, an explanation.” Arcee said, crossing her arms.</p><p>“I’d rather have this conversation later when we are not planning for an attack.”</p><p>“It’s either we talk about it or we fight.”</p><p>Starscream let out a vent before standing up. “Okay, fine. Ratchet, I need you to transport me, Thundercracker, Prowl, and Arcee to some place spacious but remote if you could.”</p><p>“Okay but know if something happens or if Megatron starts his attack, you all will have to immediately come back. No excuses.” Ratchet said as he typed in some coordinates into the groundbridge. The group of four walked through it appearing in the middle of the desert. Prowl immediately walked a bit away with Starscream as Thundercracker approached Arcee.</p><p>"Hand over all your weapons and then hold your arms out." Thundercracker said. Arcee handed him her blasters and a couple daggers before holding her arms straight out in front of her. Thundercracker quickly worked to disable the weapons in her arms. After checking the femme over, he stepped back and walked over to Prowl, who was carrying a sword and Starscream’s nullrays. "Okay rules are simple. First one to yield loses, try not to cause major damage, and remember we do have to talk after this."</p><p>Both Arcee and Starscream looked at him before nodding their understanding. They both got into position as Prowl let off his sirens. Arcee immediately rushed over to Starscream and tried swinging a punch at him. Starscream ducked under her arm and then grabbed a hold of it. Using most of his strength he flipped her over onto the ground. She flipped up and proceeded to rush at Starscream again. She punched at him as he held up his arms to block it. He grabbed a hold of her arm and punched her in the side before letting go. He quickly moved out of the way as Arcee tried to tackle him. She ran past him before turning around and sweeping her leg out. Her leg hit Starscream's, making him fall over. She crawled on top of him and started punching at his helm. Starscream tried to knock the femme off of him but she wouldn’t budge. “I yield!” He called out spurring Prowl into action. He ran over to the two and quickly pulled Arcee off of Starscream.</p><p>Thundercracker ran over to Starscream to check on him. After confirming that Starscream was fine, Thundercracker helped him back up. Prowl looked over Arcee checking her for any injuries. Starscream walked over to Arcee after he stood up. “I apologize for killing Cliffjumper. I swear if it wasn’t for the fact I was trapped in a frame without my original memories I wouldn’t have killed him. Too much has been taken from everyone in this war without another dead. If I could go back and change it I would but unfortunately all I have to give you is my apologies. You don’t have to accept them but I’m giving them anyway.”</p><p>Arcee looked at the seeker suspiciously. “I still don’t trust you but I won’t try and make everything harder. You’re right too much has been sacrificed in this war.”</p><p>“With that out of the way for now, know that anymore fights will lead to punishment.” Prowl said looking between his amica and the femme. “For the both of you. I am not going to play favorites. Is that understood?”</p><p>“Yes, Sir.” Starscream and Arcee said simultaneously as a groundbridge opened up behind Prowl. They all walked through back to the base.</p>
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